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FILE PHOTO: Men run next to burning tires during a protest demanding an end to gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, August 14, 2023.
How long must Haitians wait for help?
On Wednesday, armed men surrounded the Fontaine Hospital Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, trapping scores of people for hours before police managed to evacuate at least 40 children and 70 other patients. This type of violence has become a daily occurrence in Haiti, where police have struggled to gain the upper hand against gangs since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been urgently calling for international intervention for over a year to help crack down on the mayhem.
While most countries have opted not to jump into the fray, Kenya offered to lead a police force to quash Haiti’s gangs. The UN approved the plan last month, but it immediately hit a legal hurdle back in Kenya, where opponents say Kenya’s Constitution only permits military deployments overseas, not the dispatch of police officers. The court has yet to rule – a verdict is expected on Jan. 26, 2024 – but proponents of the mission got a boost this week when Kenya’s Parliament approved the mission. Lawmakers cited a committee report that found it constitutional on the grounds that Henry requested the police and because the government solicited public participation.
Kenya can’t go it alone: If the court greenlights the mission, the force consists of just 1,000 Kenyan officers, who would be joined by promised deployments from other nations, bringing the total to 2,500. Even combined with roughly 9,000 Haitian National Police officers, the proposed mission would still be outnumbered.
Haiti’s roughly 200 gangs – estimated to have had at least 100 members each in 2021, totaling 20,000-plus — have merged into two large coalitions, fighting both each other and the police for control.Police try to protect residents fleeing the neighbourhood after gangs took over Carrefour Feuilles, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti August 15, 2023.
UN approves Kenyan mission to Haiti
The UN Security Council on Monday authorized a Kenyan-led mission to Haiti that aims to help the nation’s beleaguered police forces re-establish control of the Caribbean country.
Ever since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, Haiti has been plunged into anarchy, with gangs controlling the vast majority of Port-au-Prince, the capital. More than 150,000 people have been displaced by gang violence, and thousands have been killed. The police, serving a caretaker government that lacks popular legitimacy, are underfunded and overwhelmed.
Earlier this year, the Haitian government and the UN called for international help. The US has supported the idea, but a checkered history of American interventions in Haiti has made the White House reluctant to get involved directly.
That’s where Kenya comes in. The resolution – which the US supported, and Russia and China abstained from – empowers Nairobi to dispatch 1,000 police officers to Haiti, alongside about a dozen other countries that have pledged to join the mission. It also offers training and logistical support to the countries that pledge to intervene. For more on why Kenya is stepping up to the plate, check out this explainer.
But taming Haiti’s gangs is a tall order, and not everyone is thrilled about an international mission like this. Recent UN interventions in Haiti have resulted in a deadly cholera outbreak and allegations that peacekeepers sexually exploited Haitian women and then abandoned hundreds of children who were born as a result.
Two Haitian-American groups are already lobbying against the Kenyan plan, telling the Biden administration that the intervention will only “exacerbate [Haiti’s] current political crisis to a catastrophic one.”
The Graphic Truth: How does El Salvador's prison rate stack up?
El Salvador made headlines in recent days after President Nayib Bukele released photos of gang members being corralled into the country’s new mega-prison – a sprawling complex that will eventually hold 40,000 inmates. It’s the latest development in Bukele’s massive – and very popular – crackdown on gangs, in which Salvadoran authorities have locked up almost 2% of the adult population. (Never mind that US officials have recently accused Bukele of colluding with the very gangs he says he’s trying to stamp out!) El Salvador now has the highest prison rate per 100,000 people in the world – but how does that compare globally? Here we take a look at the countries with the highest official prison rates.
Sri Lankan workers protest in front of the president's office at Colombo.
What We’re Watching: Sri Lanka on strike, trouble in Transnistria, Salvadorans back Bukele
Sri Lankans strike to get president out
Virtually all business activity in Sri Lanka ground to a halt on Thursday, as workers went on a nationwide strike to demand the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. For weeks, Sri Lankans have been protesting amid the country’s growing economic and political crisis. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, having already defaulted on its sovereign debt and depleted its foreign currency reserves used for food and fuel purchases. Officials have been trying to get some relief from China and the International Monetary Fund, but Beijing will only refinance, and the IMF requires deep economic reforms. Meanwhile, trade unions say they'll strike permanently if Rajapaksa doesn't step down by May 6. The president is willing to appoint a new interim government and even drop his brother Mahinda as PM, but Mahinda himself has refused to resign. The opposition, which is close to getting a no-confidence vote to remove both Rajapaksas, hopes to appease Sri Lankans who have lost faith in their political leadership.
The war spills across Ukraine’s borders
“We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine,” President Joe Biden said Thursday, noting that he’s seeking an additional $33 billion from Congress to bolster Ukraine’s defense. This comes at a moment when the war appears to be spilling across borders. Start with Transnistria, a sliver of land between Moldova and southwestern Ukraine roughly the size of Rhode Island. Russia says it’s an independent republic; Moldova says it’s land Russia stole 30 years ago. As in Ukraine’s Donbas region, Moscow claims that Russian speakers in Transnistria are threatened and deserve “protection.” That’s why mysterious explosions there this week have set teeth on edge. Is Ukraine or Moldova attacking Transnistria? The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, says it’s more likely Moscow is preparing a “false-flag attack,” an incident staged to justify the opening of a new front in Russia’s war. But there were also reported explosions this week in the Russian cities of Belgorod and Voronezh that may have been the work of Ukrainian drones or missiles. A coy Ukrainian official blamed “karma” before adding that Russian cities can’t expect to “sit out” the war. Both stories are worth watching in the coming days.
Salvadorans support Bukele’s tightening grip
For the past month, the gang-plagued Central American country of El Salvador has been under a state of emergency as authorities try to rein in a surge of violence. During that time, the government of Nayib Bukele has vastly expanded its powers to surveil and detain people, requisition land, and limit the legal oversight of security spending. Human rights groups and independent journalists have cried foul, but still, the 40-year-old Bukele — elected as a charismatic outsider in 2019 — remains stunningly popular among a population that has grown weary of killings. El Salvador is routinely among the global leaders in per-capita homicides, one reason why hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans have made the perilous journey northward to the US border in recent years. According to a new poll, more than 90% of Salvadorans support the recent crackdowns, and a strong majority is satisfied with the state of the country’s democracy. All of which opens up a thorny question: to what extent should we give up civil liberties in the name of security?Indonesian police's plan to involve gangs to uphold Covid-19 health protocols causes concern
JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The Indonesian police's plan to involve community leaders and local gang leaders to help authorities raise awareness about the Covid-19 health protocols has been met with strong objections.